1st Set: CASEY JONES starts us off. The crowd loves it. Meh for me. MABM gets the real steam going with the guitar playing. In some parts, Jerry is barely playing but he is playing and it adds a lot of nuances to the song. The second jam starts to get intense, I think because of Phil. It doesn’t quite get to where it will get but it is a harbinger of nice jams to come. NTYSM is good but it’s nice to hear it broken apart to see where the blues riffs are inserted. LOSER has been great since it debuted but this version is sublime. Everyone’s in tune and sounding soulful. Bobby asks if there are any lovers of the number 12 because if there are they are in for a treat. Then he does a 12-count opening to BIODTL. The music is still flowing and sounding great. HARD TO HANDLE is getting more and more beautiful with each night they play it. The jam doesn’t come to a head but the music in the jam is mesmerizing. BERTHA is just ok. It’s been really good the last few times but it just doesn’t go anywhere.
2nd Set: Every song is on fire.

Stopping in for the Greek Orthodox Church Public Supper got the night off to a perfect start. I was already a Dead fan and am even more on board today. This was the only show I ever attended. Perfect.

dig these early seventies soundboards,sounds like there playing in my living room,amazing how far this set and songs are traveling>keep up the good work

we drove down from goddard in northern vermont where it had been dumping profusely since thanksgiving, so wicked cabin fever was in evidence, and it was spring being sprung wide open...i had a friend at f&m who got the tix, so we had just arrived as the doors opened and voila, the new riders were getting warmed up with jerry on pedal... and the bleachers were starting to sway when the film cannister of mesc started it's rounds. back then there were pure unadulterated options, which vanished our fatigue into the woodwork. the dead came on and we started dancing.... all of a sudden it made perfect sense. this was their milieu and they had been inhabiting it for years. and knew exactly what to do in highly conservative backwaters such as lancaster, pa = get up and dance!!!!.... i must say that it was one of the best shows simply because it was the primordial early dead w/ pigpen!!!! before hard substance abuse became evident, so the spirit of the music was overwhelmingly front and center...and there were only several hundred people there, i missed the whole prom retinue for obvious reasons, but when they split the void was promptly filled, and the place levitated with the high octane benevolence radiating in a loop spiraling between the stage and the dancing throng. this was inexorably the best dance band i had ever witnessed...afterwards, in prodigious sweat we hit the showers in the dorm, damed the drains creating a swimming pool amidst deep fog that shimmered until dawn. if only the scene could have stayed small for much longer...because until 1975 or so it was pure as driven snow...

The reviews for this show worth their weight in GOLD.
(Obviously less well known then Port Chester run.)
We get to hear the newer tunes in rotation.

The Good Lovin' is a beast!
Pigpen laying down some free advice -for sure!
JERRY turned up to 11. (as it should be)

Not having been there myself, with only the wealth of listening privileges the archive provides (god, we're lucky nowadays, with absolutely no way to feel how lucky we are), I find this a good rather than a spectacular show.

Over time I have come to relish oh_uh_um_ah. You may too.
This show is dynamite, particularly Good Lovin', Cumberland, Loser (especially), Beat It, Deal, Truckin', China Cat, Sugar Magnolia, Midnight Hour and UJB.
Jerry is playing his ass off.
This recording is the epitome of "crisp".

This is a true story. I drove and Jimmy and Molly were in the back seat. Guil and a couple others in another car. Driving in from Haverford, PA. I was 18. We smoked hash along the way and dropped mescaline and drank some beers. At some point we pulled over and a couple guys went to the bathroom on the side of the road. I looked out and saw a family watching from the bay window of their house, as they peed on their front yard. Not good. There might have been a little waggling for good measure. A little later the cops flagged us down and we went straight before a judge for lewd behavior and whatever.
Honest. True story. It gets better. Stay with me.
The judge was not happy to be called in and the mescaline Was kicking in and I was a little mad because I was not involved with the peeing or the waggling. So the judge fined us everything we had in our pockets and released us. Our eyes must have been as wide as saucers from the mescaline and we must have smelled like stale beer and good hash, but it was 1971. Off we went to the concert.
Got there and the whole place was locked up and no tickets for sale. We had no money anyway. We roamed around the building in a crowd and I remember helping Molly, that wonderful girl, unlock a window and giving her a boost up and in, but I did not follow.
It was getting dark and suddenly for no apparent reason the gym double doors were open and light streamed out and a guard was there, but we all just rushed in. The guard got an arm around Guil and another arm around someone else and I was past and in.
I turned left under the bleachers and remember running as fast as I could ducking under metal bleacher arms and jumping over low metal arms, all,part of the bleacher under structure.
Here's where it starts to sound like a fairy tale.
I came to the end of the bleachers to a cinder block wall. I felt my way along in the semi darkness and felt a curtain. I pulled the curtain aside and there was a narrow gap between the wall and the side of the stage. I looked in and a guy in a cowboy hat saw me and pointed at me and crooked his finger at me, to come on in. I squeezed through and it was the most natural thing in the world. The New Riders were onstage and the prettiest girls in cowboy hats and jeans were sitting behind them and around the back of the stage area and I sat there, too. A couple joints passed around and later, when the New Riders finished, the guys I had been smoking with went up,on stage and I followed and it was about then I realized these guys must be the band. I sat cross legged on the stage floor to the left of Jerry's amplifier. I remember a couple times he lit a joint, took a hit, and put it on the amp. At the end of the song, he would take a last hit of the joint. Once the joint rolled off and I smoked it. The crowd threw joints on stage and Jerry would pick one up and light another.
A kid in the crowd from my high school took a black and white photo of me withn1600 ASA film. It is grainy, but there I am.
It was my first concert. After wards I thought all concerts must be like this. Took me a while to realize how wild and special and lucky that night was. In retrospect, it was both amazing and, for that time, normal -- in the sense that stuff like this happened. It was an innocent age. 1950s decent cops dealing with kids they could not recognize.
You can hear the music. The sound was incredible being there and the recording is a pale shadow but thank the Lord it exists.
After the concert Molly and Guil were missing so we had the sense to call the police and sure enough, for the second time that night, they were in jail and their parents were on the way in to get them at 2 in the morning. Well. Playing in the band, right?

Twas the night before Easter in 71
On our way to the Dead for their famous spring run
I was a bright eyed 16 year old pup
their friends the New Riders were opening up
Steve and I got our tickets at three dollars each
for two kids in high school a price within reach
I had never attended a concert before
and little did I realize what was in store
we parked without hassle, found our way inside
and marveled to see their P.A. was tie-dyed
the excitement was high, the lights went down low
out came the New Riders to open the show
Dave Nelson’s guitar and Marmaduke singing
Jerry’s pedal steel had the rafters all ringing
I was particularly amazed in light of the fact
that this was only the opening act!
The house lights came up for a brief intermission
the pair in the aisle below us french kissing
the ushers had long since given up and retreated
no one at a dead show stays where they’re seated
a hush fell over the room, the lights went down low
the flicker of lighters cast a pale glow
a familiar fragrance was filling my mind
and the band came on stage one at a time
American Beauty was the most recent album
which hardly prepared me for what was to come
the music began, familiar at the beginning
but played in a way that had everyone grinning
my musical consciousness had not yet evolved
enough to perceive the concepts involved
but I loved every minute, lost in the waves
generated by the musicians on stage
Pig Pen was raving and Jerry was wailing
Bobby and Phil and Billy were sailing
I didn’t know how to dance but I was moving around
like everyone else I was riding that sound
and at that moment I didn’t quite realize
that this was the beginning of the rest of my life
I was starting to think they’d play all night long
they’d start another before they’d finish a song
bet eventually even the Dead have to go
after only 6 hours they ended the show
in a daze we went home, got our friend out of bed
and stayed up all night at the diner discussing the Dead
and although I was never again quite the same
I can’t begin to explain how glad that I came!

On 4/10/71, Ron and Lonnie and I drove from Philadelphia to Franklin & Marshall College. Even though Lancaster was a bit of a drive, we felt it was still home turf, so we had bought extra tickets to turn on out-of-town Deadheads. Most Deadheads we knew adhered to that commitment; locals bought extra tickets so the out-of-towners would get to see the show.
The gig was in a small auditorium which could have once been a church. There were two, large double-doors, that came to a rounded top, at one end, and they were the only visible entrance to the room. Inside there was a large middle section with an aisle coming right down the middle and two aisles on the sides and then low bleacher seats along the side walls. When we arrived, we discovered this concert was actually F&M's Senior Prom! All the center seats were for the seniors and their dates who began filling them up. Guys in cheap tuxes and women in poofy gowns with corsages and their hair done up. The room probably held only 300 people--and 240 of them were prom people. Junior Class guys played the role of "monitors." They had cocoa-brown sport jackets and wore armbands (I guess to distinguish themselves in case the rest of us wore cocoa-brown sport jackets). Outside the venue were Deadheads from all over, probably twice as many people as seats inside. And there was one cop car with an old cop standing around looking like he was in the middle of a Fellini flick, but he was cool.
My friend Lonnie, from Canada, with shoulder-length, thick red hair wore a buckskin jacket. Although he looked as much as a peace-loving freak as the rest of us, he was actually a very tough person. He played minor-league hockey, and, although, he never looked for trouble, no one should mess with him. We sat on the bleachers along the left side, and Lonnie lit up. Instantly one of the monitors asked him to put it out. Lonnie glared at him once, didn't say a word, and just ignored him. Meanwhile, all the freaks started blowing up balloons and bopping them around and a few Frisbees began sailing back and forth across the room from the freaks in the bleachers along one wall to their counterparts along the other wall. Of course, the Frisbees are sailing just over the heads of the prom people in the middle. Some promers tried to snag the Frisbees out of the air, and, when they did, they'd just drop it on the floor to a chorus of boos.
Then that first monitor came back with another, much larger monitor, who politely, but firmly, asked us to extinguish our butts, or we'd have to leave. Lonnie looked him in the eyes, fixed like lasers, and said, "Go away boy, don't bother me" with a tone that very few could ignore. The monitors looked like they'd rather be taking a mid-term right then than standing there facing Lonnie, the rest of us, and whatever else the evening might bring. At that moment, I knew it was all out of control.
Just then the lights dimmed and the New Riders came out. The music was good, but we all knew it was just the warm up, just a chance to get into the right frame of mind for the main course. During the Riders set, one by one, half the prom people walked out and many of the monitors, too. During the Dead's first set, most of the other prom people left. About the start of the second set, there were, maybe, two or three prom couples left in a large area of empty seats. These prom people were getting down, dancing just like the rest of us. Maybe they'd been initiated, maybe they had been the ones who recommended this particular musical group to the prom committee in the first place. From the back of the room, people were pounding on those big doors and chanting, "open the doors!" The street in front of the venue was packed with Deadheads who came a long way and wanted, at least, to hear a little better. The remaining monitors were guarding the door. Suddenly, Jerry jumped down off the stage, walked swiftly down the middle aisle, and opened the doors to great cheers. The floodgates were open, Jerry headed back to the stage, and the room was soon filled with rabid fans. Of course, the band then got about ten times better.
There was a "chick" who was having a real tough time handling her acid, and Ron took her to the side to calm her down and guide her to a survivable evening. Lonnie and I eventually made our way to the stage. I stood right next to Jerry, and, at one point, he looked down at me with such a joyful, loving gaze, I'll never, ever forget it. It was a great night.

PS) In all these years, I've never seen a confirmation about Jerry running down and opening those doors, but that's how I remember it. I can tell you that watching him just a few feet away playing, he was very...muscular; i.e., his whole attitude, his playing--he was really driving his end of the music.

PPS) I'm submitting this review not having heard the show--since that night. I'm rating it 5 stars based on everything else; the music was a bonus.

I was there too, and though this is not all that well balanced it is pure virtuosity. First time I had seen them live, blown away. They loved the crowd and the crowd loved them back.

I think I recall there was a bomb scare (we suspected the townies because after they emptied and then let everyone back in, there were always more). The student organizer told me later that because they went well past their allotted time ("duh"), they were "banned" from again playing at F&M.

New Riders were also amazing...thanks for making this available!

at Mayser Center (the gym(, not East Hall (offices).
I was there. They also did a set as New Riders...
pigpen was in terrific form...3000 attendees max

Garcia is way up in the left channel...and it's a Good Thing!!! Hear the Master. I'm HYPNOTIZED...

I guess what I like most about THE GRATEFUL DEAD from April 30, 1971 back, is the sound of Garcia's guitars, Pigpen, and Billy; when he's laying down a funky groove on his drums.

Fans of Garcia's playing can really get a good idea of what he is doing by listening to this show. It's a real treat. His sound is amazing.

Jerry and Bobby can be easily heard, while the vocals, drums and bass are lower in the mix somewhat...but hey, that doesn't mean it's a bad thing...

At least when Garcia is turned up in the mix he's playing his A$$ off...wow!

Jerry can be heard laying down some serious licks in Good Lovin'.

The sound guy does play with the mix on this one...so what else is new on these "soundboard" recordings? Remember it's a LIVE RECORDING.

I rememeber when we called these things "BOOTLEGS" and you got 30-45 minutes on an LP for $10-$15 in 1971, and said thank you, what else can I buy, please?

The show's sound is fine, I am listening to it as I download it, it's not that bad. The mix is guitar heavy, so what? Is that bad when it's Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir in 1971?
You be the judge.

Truckin has a poor mix for the first few seconds...then it gets better, but Garcia is way up in the mix, isolated hard left channel...great for guitar players who just want to hear Jerry Garcia play his A$$ off in 1971.

You lucky dogs...listen and learn...amazing playing...this is a rare treat, every lick clear as day, so download it and get started.

I am downloading this show...it's that good and I don't play the guitar.

If you liked sitting in front of Jerry Garcia at the concert so you could hear him, this show is for you.

Bathe in the sound of Garcia's guitar...wow.

And its a good recording of Bobby and Jerry's playing.

Bobby's mix in China Cat is way up, and he's beating riffs out of his guitar like it's a rented mule.

I really enjoy this China Cat-IKYR. The mix is guitar heavy, but so what...these guys are in tune, in time, and playing their A$$ES off.

Cumberland Blues has a little better mix of the entire band, and its a clean mix, you can hear everyone easily, wow!

Garcia is using his whah-whah pedal on Sugar Magnolia/Sunshine Daydream, and it's alive. Incredible sound, that tube sound can be heard, it's a living thing. Don't miss this show, you will be sorry if you do. Sunshine Daydream cuts out about 1:02, at 1:14 the sound returns to a "break" on stage.

IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR: The mix sounds fine. I love the sound of the Guitars and Bass in this song. Billy is mixed in the back, but can be heard fine.
Jerry, Bobby & Phil are realling putting out in this show; I am sure Billy is too, but he's not as easy to hear as everyone else.

It's a live show so give it some forgiveness folks and you will be rewarded with a memorable show.

Consider yourself lucky. I do. Besides if anyone was gonig to be way up in the mix who would you want it to be?

This is another show where the performance surpasses the mix and deserves 5 stars, for playing, not for the mix. 5 STARS!

The sound guy was probably on 1,000 mics of LSD 25 and thought it sounded great...if he's still in this universe, ask him.

EAT, DRINK, BE MERRY AND LISTEN TO THE GRATEFUL DEAD.

THANKS FOR THE LOVE.

My dad was at this show!!! 5 stars from him and I on the quality of this show....i swear....when the dead went to different sources of recording {1974] somethin changed.....i love this recording and aside from mickey being gone, it is typical ass kickin dead......listen to one of the greatest phrasers of the 20th century...a true guitar stylist....guitar starts to really break up {clip} during truckin..kinda sucks man...he is playing some real cool licks......hard to handle is glitch free

THE GUITARS SEEM TO DROWN OUT THE VOCALS THROUGHOUT THE SHOW....WHICH IS OK ..CAUSE I LOVE JERRY...BUT I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HEAR HIS VOICE A BIT...